|
MUMBAI:
ESPN Star Sports (ESS) will air 10 matches from the ICC U/19
Cricket World Cup (U/19 CWC). The matches will be shown on
Star Cricket.
The
tournament takes place from 17 February – 2 March, and
will be held at Malaysia. Sixteen teams will be battling for
a place in the final in Kuala Lumpur. In addition to ICC's
10 full members and hosts, Malaysia, five qualifiers - Namibia,
Nepal, Papua New Guinea, Ireland, and Bermuda - will take
part in the two-week long tournament.
Star
Cricket will telecast 10 matches from Malaysia including the
semi-finals and the finals. The commentary panel includes
personalities like Alan Wilkins, Alistair Campbell, Colin
Miller, Ranjit Fernando and Danny Morrison.
ESS
adds that it has ensured that live telecast of the ICC U/19
Cricket World Cup will be seen in more than 100 countries
worldwide. Nearly all participating nations will have live
coverage of the tournament in their home countries including
Malaysia, India and Namibia.
In
addition to cricket's traditional heartlands in South Asia,
England and Australia, the coverage will also be seen across
the continents of Africa, throughout the Middle East and in
the nations of the West Indies. In addition, viewers in North
America will see the action in what will be the most coverage
enjoyed by any U/19 CWC to date.
ESS
India MD RC Venkateish said, "This is the first time
that ESPN Star Sports will be telecasting the Under/19 ICC
Cricket World Cup and we are very excited about it. Our World
class production facility will ensure the best viewing experience
for the audience during the tournament.
"All
arrangements for the smooth telecast, which will spot the
emerging talent not only in the country but across all playing
nations of the world, have been completed."
At
the opening ceremony, ICC CEO Malcolm Speed said, “This
event is designed to be a finishing school for young cricketers.
It’s an opportunity for these young players to test their
skills in a full ICC tournament environment against their
peers from around the world.
“When
I think back over previous U/19 World Cups, the first thing
to come to mind is the quality of the players that have come
to the fore in the senior global game having first played
in this tournament. Inzamam-ul-Haq, Brian Lara, Yuvraj Singh,
Graeme Smith, Sanath Jayasuriya and many other fine players
began their international careers on this stage.
“And
I have no doubt that before us today there is the next generation
of cricketer who will excite and thrill us in future test
matches and ODIs.
“But
it is about more than that. It’s about receiving education
on matters of anti-corruption and anti-doping, it’s about
learning how to cope with questions from the media and generally
being in the spotlight. It’s about managing to perform
to the best of your ability in the midst of all the necessary
distractions that go along with events like this. In short,
it’s about becoming well-rounded sportsmen”.
Malaysian
Cricket Association president HRH Tunku Imran said, “The
ICC U/19 Cricket World Cup is the leading development tournament
for international cricket and it is an honour to be the first
non-test-playing country to host the event.
“It
gives Malaysia, as a developing cricketing country, the opportunity
to showcase the fruits of our labour through the aggressive
development programmes that we have undertaken. Cricket as
a sport epitomises the strong traits that we seek to nurture
through the development programmes as it breeds physical and
mental resilience and team spirit while at the same time developing
natural leaders.
“We
hope that through this event, we will be able to create excitement
and pave the way for more young enthusiastic and adrenalin-pumping
teenagers to take up cricket in Malaysia."
Defending
champion Pakistan will get its campaign underway by playing
the host Malaysia on 17 February at Johor Cricket Academy.
Pakistan
is the only team to have won back-to-back titles at this level,
having triumphed in 2004 and 2006 in Bangladesh and Sri Lanka,
respectively, and will now aim to make it a hat-trick as it
goes into the event as top seed.
The
winner from 2000, India, is seeded second, with Australia
(winners in the inaugural event back in 1988 and also in 2002)
seeded third and England (winners in 1999) fourth.
|
